It has long been known to fill pasty stuffing, such as sausage meat or cheese, into tubular packaging casings. For filling and closing the packaging casings, use is made of filling machines which interact with a closing device. Such filling machines and closing devices are known. The filling machines usually have a rotary plate or turret plate which is pivotable and on which are arranged one, two or more filling tubes, of which one filling tube is pivoted into a position in which a packaging casing is drawn onto the filling tube such that the end of the packaging casing is located upstream of the mouth of the filling tube. The tubular packaging casings are generally dimensionally stable strands of long length of from 10 to 200 m, which are folded up to form strands of a length of from 10 to 100 cm. In the vicinity of the mouth of the filling tube, the latter is enclosed by an external brake which counteracts the action of the packaging casing being drawn off from the filling tube during the filling operation by an adjustable force being used to press the packaging casing onto the lateral surface of the filling tube.
EP 0 962 143 B1 discloses an apparatus for producing filled packaging casings, in particular sausages, by filling and subsequently closing tubular or bag-like sausage casings. The apparatus comprises a filling machine which has at least one filling tube with a mouth onto which sausage casings are drawn and through which stuffing can be directed in order to fill the sausage casings. A closing machine for closing filled sausage casings or sausage-casing sections is arranged downstream of the mouth of the filling tube, as seen in relation to the stream of stuffing in the filling tube. The apparatus further comprises a residual-casing remover for removing from the filling and/or the closing machine that part of a sausage casing which has not been filled. Also provided are a magazine for non-filled sausage casings and means for removing a non-filled sausage casing from the magazine in order for the casing to be drawn onto the filling tube. Provided between the filling machine and the closing machine is a data line or signal line for receiving operating parameters. The known apparatus is also distinguished by a monitoring device which can detect at least one parameter of a pack produced, such as the weight or the plumpness thereof, and by at least one control device, which is connected to the monitoring device and the filling and/or the closing machine and is configured such that, in the event of one or more of the parameters detected by the monitoring device deviating from corresponding desired values, it changes one or more operating parameters of the filling and/or closing machine or switches the latter off.
The storage apparatuses have magazines and also an apparatus for discharging sausage casings, means for accommodating a sausage casing at the transfer position, means for removing the sausage casing from the magazine and means for discharging the sausage casing to a discharge position. The discharging apparatus comprises a gripper which can be displaced longitudinally in a direction running parallel to the accommodating holders for the non-filled sausage casings and, in addition, can be pivoted transversely to this direction. Furthermore, a separately activatable drive is provided for opening and closing the gripper, for displacing the latter longitudinally and for pivoting the same. The three drives of the gripper are arranged such that the drive for pivoting the gripper carries along the other two drives, and that the drive for displacing the gripper longitudinally carries along the drive for opening and closing the gripper.
DE 30 19 981 C2 relates to an apparatus for storing sausage casings on a sausage-filling machine, having a storage container for accommodating a plurality of layers of sausage casings which have been folded up in the manner of an accordion in their longitudinal direction, having dispensing means for dispensing a sausage casing, and having drawing-on means for automatically drawing a sausage casing onto a stuffing tube for a plastically deformable substance such as sausage meat or cheese. Conveying means are provided for slowly advancing the lowermost layer of sausage casings, transversely to the length thereof, over a distance along the base of the storage container, this distance corresponding to a multiple of the diameter of the sausage casings, in the direction of a removal location. Also provided are return means for returning further sausage casings which rest on the lowermost layer.
The base of the storage container slopes up in relation to the horizontal, in the conveying direction of the conveyor, by an angle of inclination which is at least equal to an angle of repose which allows the top sausage casing to roll back automatically. Arranged between the base of the storage container and the removal location is a downwardly inclined guide well, of which the bottom part forms a sliding guide for pushing the lowermost sausage casing onto the stuffing tube. The conveying means have a uniformly circulating endless conveying loop with drivers guided above the storage-container base.
The known magazine apparatuses operate reliably in the case of dimensionally stable packaging casings made of plastic, although this is only achieved by way of high technical outlay, for example three drives for a gripper apparatus for the packaging casing. In the case of a known apparatus, the magazine is adjustable and can be oriented precisely in relation to an adjacent filling tube of the filling machine. The high technical outlay means that malfunctioning can easily occur and, in the case of the apparatus being converted to different diameters and lengths of packaging casing, for example the operating parameters of the drives for the gripper apparatus then have to be changed, which is correspondingly time-consuming.
The invention takes the apparatus described in the introduction as its departure point and has the object, in an apparatus comprising a filling machine, closing device and magazine for filling packaging casings fully automatically, of simplifying, and thus configuring in an operationally reliable manner, the magazine and the transporting system from the magazine to the filling machine.